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iPhone XR Question for XR owners

smoking monkey

smoking monkey

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Mar 5, 2008
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How is watching movies on the XR in terms of screen brightness (and just generally) compared to the Max or a plus phone (any of them)?

I did compare my 6s+ to an XR and Max in store playing various videos via youtube and found that the XR looked better than my 6S+. But I've read that the XR screen is dimmer than other phones.

Also anybody who had/has a plus phone or Max and and XR who watches movies, can you give me a rundown on your thoughts? I watch a tonne of flicks on my phone due to my work. I watch a lot of old content but I also watch sports in HD online often. IS the XR screen bright enough to watch content in difficult conditions (like on a train or plane) in your experience?

Thanks.
 
Talking purely theoretical specs, all iPhones since iPhone 7 have 625cd/m2 brightness as opposed to 500 for 6S. This includes XR and XS Max.

Differences between XR and XS are of course OLED technology but asking people about their opinions on OLED will most likely not result in a simple answer. There’s a ton of threads about this already.

I’d just think of XR as the best LCD phone available. It’s a little smaller than Max and doesn’t have OLED, but what this means for you personally, only you can decide. You should try XR for a longer period of time.
 
sunapple said:
Talking purely theoretical specs, all iPhones since iPhone 7 have 625cd/m2 brightness as opposed to 500 for 6S. This includes XR and XS Max.

Differences between XR and XS are of course OLED technology but asking people about their opinions on OLED will most likely not result in a simple answer. There’s a ton of threads about this already.

I’d just think of XR as the best LCD phone available. It’s a little smaller than Max and doesn’t have OLED, but what this means for you personally, only you can decide. You should try XR for a longer period of time.
Click to expand...

Thanks. But I am looking for actual owners of the device who watch movies on it. I want their opinion.
 
smoking monkey said:
Thanks. But I am looking for actual owners of the device who watch movies on it. I want their opinion.
Click to expand...

I actually really enjoy watching Netflix on my Product RED XR. When you’re looking straight at the screen, the only challenge are the black bars stand out a little so sometimes I zoom in. Unlike my wife’s XS, the black bars are more like a dark dark grey. But in terms of brightness, when you turn the brightness all the way up on the XR and XS, they are identical - zero difference.
 
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smoking monkey said:
Thanks. But I am looking for actual owners of the device who watch movies on it. I want their opinion.
Click to expand...
I tested the xr for a week and a slightly slight slight difference in brightness with the xr being lower. It’s not noticeable:

A) if you don’t do a side by side
b) if you have never owned an xs

I have a max btw.

Also the speakers are better on the max. I would have never noticed that if I was testing this at the Apple store but I’d you hold them at home you will notice the max has fuller sounding speakers and slightly louder volume.
 
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smoking monkey said:
How is watching movies on the XR in terms of screen brightness (and just generally) compared to the Max or a plus phone (any of them)?

I did compare my 6s+ to an XR and Max in store playing various videos via youtube and found that the XR looked better than my 6S+. But I've read that the XR screen is dimmer than other phones.

Also anybody who had/has a plus phone or Max and and XR who watches movies, can you give me a rundown on your thoughts? I watch a tonne of flicks on my phone due to my work. I watch a lot of old content but I also watch sports in HD online often. IS the XR screen bright enough to watch content in difficult conditions (like on a train or plane) in your experience?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi there, blue iPhone XR owner here, switched over from iPhone 7 plus. Brightness is much improved especially under sunlight, something I notice while using the XR as my navigation device in the car. Watching Netflix is more immersive compared to my 7 plus. Stereo separation is clearly improved and videos look better on the iPhone XR screen, assuming you are not bother by the notch.
 
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Thanks to all the replies from people with actual XRs. Appreciate the opinions.
As it turns out, I no longer have to choose between the Max and the XR (was leaning towards XR) as Japan has seemingly given an insane discount on the XR. the XR 128Gig from Apple is a flat 100,000yen (after Tax) which is about 880 $US. Now if I buy from a carrier online or switch carriers I can get the same phone for about 35,000yen (after tax) which is 310 $US. That's crazy. I can't turn down that kind of price. That's just over 1,000 $US cheaper compared to the Max here!!

Hopefully it's not smoke and mirrors, but I've just been in the shop and that is the info I was provided. Going to buy it online tonight and confirm the price then.

EDIT: It seems like Smoke and Mirrors and it's only 100 dollars cheaper. They are so sneaky in the shops and how they explain it to you... I got all excited for nothing!
 
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I can't compare to the XS but movies look great on my XR... to me. Plus I only view content like that on a phone on rare occasions like air travel. Works perfect for that. Personal space on planes is getting too tight to bring out a laptop or even a larger iPad.
 
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The XR screen is brighter (in terms of nits) than the older Plus phones and on par with the XS. Brightness for me wasn't a problem. The problem for me was how much bigger videos are on the "smaller" Plus phones than they are on the "bigger" XR. And that's due to pillar-boxing that youtube/netflix etc do to remove the notch. And the only way around that is to zoom the video to fit the screen, which is unacceptable to me for most content. So as far as video watching goes, the 8+ is superior to the XR imo.
 
I had a XS Max for about a month and honestly, didnt feel it was worth the $. I now have a XR and feel my overall experience with the phone has been more enjoyable over my XS max. Display, in my option, is about on par with the XS max. Unless you are looking at the XS at an off angle. In that case, yes, the XS max is better. Watching movies on my XR has been a delight. No complaints at all. One thing I can complain about, and this applies to both devices, is the Intel radio Apple used with these new phones is less than steller. On both the XS Max and my XR, I have experienced cellular issues. Apple has said it is something that can and will be addressed in future iOS updates. Lets hope so.
 
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Watching movies on my XR has been as good as, if not better than any other LCD iPhone I've used. I don't own an XS to compare it to, but I have had a Samsung OLED in the past. The only drawback of the XR is when you're watching a really dim scene in a almost completely dark room with the brightness of the screen turned almost all the way down... in that case, there was a significant advantage with OLED. Pretty much all other cases, I don't feel there is much of a difference.
 
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